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21st August 2022

Homily for 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time

READ: (Isa 66:18-21; Heb 12:5-7, 11-13; Lk 13: 22-30)

REFLECT: Discipline to be Disciples of Christ

Dear friends,

We all know to discipline is to train or develop by instruction and exercise especially in self-control. Someone has appropriately said, “Discipline offers people with rules and regulations to live their lives efficiently and effectively. When you have discipline in your life you can make small sacrifices in the present for a better life in the future. Discipline creates habits, habits make routines, and routines become who you are daily.” Yes, all the more disciplines are set or practiced in order that we may live a quality life enriching ourselves and others as well. The purpose of discipline in life is to be well-mannered or harmonious life and not be merely extremists of rules and regulation. The liturgy of the word invites each one of us understand how discipline is important as disciples of Christ and deepen our relationship with God. So based on the reading, I would like to share with you three points of reflection.

1.     The Lord Disciplines:

In Prov 3:12 we hear that God disciplines us just as a father disciplines the son in whom he delights. Yes, the Lord takes delight in disciplining us because God wants us to be His children always by following his commands and teachings. Something similar we see in the first reading where the Lord disciplines the ways of pagan nations united against him. That’s why God says through prophet Isaiah, I know their works and thoughts, I will gather all nations and tongues, I will set a sign among them, I will send the survivors to the nations and make them declare my glory to the nations, and they shall bring offering to the Lord just as the Israelites brought grain offering to the house of the Lord. Here the Lord sets in what ways the Lord would make the pagan nations conduct themselves before Him.

These words spoken through the prophet Isaiah gives us glimpse, it is God who himself directly involved in making known and disciplining the ways and lives of the people. It shows how important it is to be disciplined. God lays down norms not to burden us but to lighten our burdens to walk lightly and easily. God gives us commandments and teachings for a life worthy in his sight as his children and a life worthy in the sight of one another as brothers and sisters in the Lord. Today, how do we consider the norms or commandments or teachings in the bible? What about the norms in the society or a community. Most often we consider them as burden but if we could look at it with a right attitude, the norms are for a disciplined life and for discerning our vocation to answer the call of God. Therefore, a well disciplined life deserves recognition and approval. God loves those who follow his commands or ordinances.

2.     Discipline sharpens life:

Someone has very beautifully said, “Discipline sharpens life, if we are careful enough to handle difficulties of life.” The second reading speaks of the discipline that we are called to have and how important is this discipline in life. We know how difficult it is to be disciplined because, we have to go through a hard and painful sharpening to be disciplined persons from time to time. It may call us for a little sacrifice, accept shameful fate but if we discipline life, the life becomes happier. That’s what we hear too; do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, the Lord disciplines the one he loves and purifies them, the father does all things to discipline the children, the discipline is a painful process but if one trains to be disciplined persons he or she produces the peaceful fruit of righteousness.

Yes, discipline in life will make us a true disciple of Christ and make others as well follow the ordinances and teachings of Christ. Today what we lack is this self-discipline. We just live life with currents and trends of the crowd as people with a crowd mentality, moving as others move, not knowing what we are doing. We don’t even give a second thought to ask where, what, how I make a move myself. A disciplined person will know what is one’s responsibility and purpose. So let us be disciplined to be a disciple of Christ and harvest the fruit of peaceful righteousness in life. Just like a pencil that is sharpened to make the writing or drawing legible and visible, so also let us discipline our lives to sharpen our life’s focus of being a disciple of Christ.

3.     Be open to discipline

Our lives become more comfortable and convenient, joyful and successful, when we are open to discipline ourselves in the ordinances and statutes of the Lord. We hear someone ask a question in the gospel, “ Is it few who will be saved?” But Jesus answers, “Strive to enter through the narrow door, for many will seek to enter but will not be able to.” Here Jesus talks of narrow door through which everyone cannot enter at a time. Why there is a striving or a struggle to enter the narrow door?  A narrow door makes difficult for many to walk or go through, because the space cannot hold many. In the narrow door, the one who comes first and fast will be able to go through and get through and not those who are slow and sluggish. It is like first come first serve basis. In a narrow door, we have to fit ourselves to walk inside; we cannot walk any how we want. It calls for a proper disposition and discipline of life. A person’s life well disposed and well-disciplined will be good enough to enter through the narrow door.

We need to remind ourselves, to walk through the narrow door; in order to walk through the narrow door; we need not necessarily have a narrow mind or crooked ways.  For with a narrow and crooked mind, even the narrow door would be tough to enter. The narrow door is a door of discipline and disposition. All the more, at the end of the Gospel reading of the day Jesus says, “Some are last will be first and first will be last.”

Most of us with a narrow mind or crooked mind, one can justify oneself that I did this and that; therefore, I deserve more or better things in life. But let us realize God does not think the way we think. A well-disciplined and disposed life in accordance with God’s teaching and commands will make everyone enter the narrow door. So let us strive to enter through the narrow door. The door may be narrow but it is never closed or blocked, the door is open for all and one who enters through it will be saved. So let us ask the Lord to open our eyes to see the opportunity in the narrow door and reach the destination that God has set for us.

RESPOND:

Do I allow the Lord to discipline my life?

Do I feel that discipline sharpens life or get carried away by the painful sharpening of the discipline in life?

Do I strive to enter through the narrow door or a narrow mind or a crooked mind?

Let us discipline ourselves to be a disciple of Christ and discern our call to living human life and religious life. May God bless us all in this endeavor. Amen.

“It is foolishness to order a horse not to become fat, not to grow, not to kick: if you wish all these, then put him in a stall; we should not command him, but stop giving him oats in order to tame him.” (St. Francis De Sales, TLG, Book-1, Chapter -2)

God bless us all…

Live Jesus